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Sudden death

Hi everyone my name is Julie from the UK.
On Sunday 26th June i had what appeared to be a happy and healthy 3 year old Cavalier called Jenny, who we had from 12 weeks old. In the afternoon she was in the lounge and she yelped, we went to see if she was ok and apart from limping everything seemed to be ok, we thought she might have been playing and stumbled. 2 hours later she started to be sick, we thought she had eaten her food to quickly as she was very greedy.
The rest of the evening she was ok apart from limping.
Monday morning she was still limping but went out for a wee and was eager for her biscuits as usual. I did the school run, went to get some shopping etc and was gone till lunchtime, when i got home Jenny was laid in her bed unable to move, she was wet under herself where she had had a wee. Apart from wagging her tail she couldn't move.
I drove her to the vets and carried her in, her front paw was moving all the time like she was hitting something. The vet checked her and said she would like to keep her in for blood tests etc. The vet asked me to ring back the following morning at 10am. The next morning the vet rang to tell me that Jenny had died during the night. The vet thinks it was somethingneurological I am so devastated, she was such a fantastic, loving dog and she showed no signs of ill health for the 3 years we had her. She is my 3rd cavalier, the other 2 died both aged 12 with heart failure. I thought I knew so much about cavaliers and their health but nothing could have prepared me for the sudden death of Jenny.
I was wondering if this sudden death in such a young dog has happened to anyone elses cavalier.

I think the only way to tell what happened would be to have an autopsy done. Cavaliers do have a high incidence of the neurological condition syringomyelia (over half will eventually have it, but not all are symptomatic). There are some other problems too -- episodic falling syndrome, a high rate of epilepsy and so on.

But most dogs would be symptomatic for a long time and would not just suddenly die of their own accord from something like this. I would wonder whether she could have ingested a poison of some sort, or had a brain haemorrhage or something along those lines? Were any tests performed to rule out something like sudden liver or kidney failure?

It is a very sad occurrence; and it must be frustrating not to understand the actual reason.

I'm so sorry you lost Jenny under such sudden and unprepared circumstances. Everyone is heartbroken when their dog dies, but you got hit with a double whammy since you had no idea this was coming and she was so young. I'm so sorry.

I am so sorry for your loss. Death of a young healthy dog is very hard. My first cavalier, Sunshine, suddenly passed away at age 3 as well. I had just finished playing water tag with the small dogs and left them in the yard to pick up my kids from school. When I came home I found her in a shady spot in the yard, where I thought she was asleep. (She sometimes was a sound sleeper and I would think it fun to sneek up on her). Well when I got closer, her eyes were open and I realised she was dead. I did take her up right away to the vet for a necrospy. We did not do any tissue samples as my vet is small and I would have had to let the body go-this I could not do as I was not prepared to lose her so suddenly. Anyway, the necrospy was inconclusive and the vet suggested it was heart attack or stroke.

Where your dog was sick for a couple days before her death, I wonder too what caused her downhill climb in that little amount of time. I am sorry as I have no idea what might be the cause. As Karlin suggests a necrospy will give you some answers. I wish now that I would have done tissue samples, as I still wonder about my girl.

I am heartbroken for you....

I hope you get some answers. This is very sudden and does sound like something unusual. Agree that brain hemorrhage or poison might be potential factors. I hate that this happened to you and your sweet Cav.

Oh how sad

You must be devastated. No one can know the love we have for our dogs if you're not a dog owner, but we do and we are all, I'm sure, thinking about you at this sad time. All our hearts and love go out to you.

Another thing it could have been was a blood clot caused by something(?). They can cause limping (if it starts in a leg- had one myself, thankfully small and on the surface), then travel and cause paralysis (had 2 cats have this happen, one recovered spontaneously, which happens very rarely, the other didn't make it), and ultimately travel to the lungs/heart.

Whatever it was, with the symptoms you described, I'm not sure most people, myself included, would have thought it was such a serious issue either (((hugs))).

Hi everyone my name is Julie from the UK.
On Sunday 26th June i had what appeared to be a happy and healthy 3 year old Cavalier called Jenny, who we had from 12 weeks old. In the afternoon she was in the lounge and she yelped, we went to see if she was ok and apart from limping everything seemed to be ok, we thought she might have been playing and stumbled. 2 hours later she started to be sick, we thought she had eaten her food to quickly as she was very greedy.
The rest of the evening she was ok apart from limping.
Monday morning she was still limping but went out for a wee and was eager for her biscuits as usual. I did the school run, went to get some shopping etc and was gone till lunchtime, when i got home Jenny was laid in her bed unable to move, she was wet under herself where she had had a wee. Apart from wagging her tail she couldn't move.
I drove her to the vets and carried her in, her front paw was moving all the time like she was hitting something. The vet checked her and said she would like to keep her in for blood tests etc. The vet asked me to ring back the following morning at 10am. The next morning the vet rang to tell me that Jenny had died during the night. The vet thinks it was somethingneurological I am so devastated, she was such a fantastic, loving dog and she showed no signs of ill health for the 3 years we had her. She is my 3rd cavalier, the other 2 died both aged 12 with heart failure. I thought I knew so much about cavaliers and their health but nothing could have prepared me for the sudden death of Jenny.
I was wondering if this sudden death in such a young dog has happened to anyone elses cavalier.

Julie xxx

So sorry to read about your loss. This sounds like a brain hemorrhage of some kind. Was the vet able to tell you the cause of death at all?